Ahead of the submission of his list of cabinet to the National Assembly this month, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with two key leaders of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande.
Buhari, on Monday, had reiterated his promise to form his cabinet this month and urged Nigerians and the international community that have been growing impatient with his administration over the delay in unveiling hisministers to challenge him if, by September 30, he failed to name his ministers.
Although yesterday’s meeting among the trio held behind closed doors, New Telegraph gathered that Tinubu and Akande came to consult with the president, before he travelled out to France, on “sundry issues.”
But addressing State House correspondents who accosted him on the purpose of their meeting and the alleged crisis in the party, Tinubu said after the meeting, which lasted for over an hour, that people were only speculating on his alleged bid to influence the choice of ministers.
“What can I do about that? They have the right to speculate, they have the right to their lies and I have the right to debunk,” he said. On why the president has delayed for long in appointing ministers, Tinubu said: “There is a pitfall in rushing; in quick fix, depending upon the depth of the rot.
And that rush can cascade into mistakes of unimaginable magnitude. There is equally glory and recovery in slowness when you have to fix a bad foundation. “So to me, I would rather take the one that will last the country and endure for a longer period of time than the rush hour shopping.” Reacting to the recent allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Buhari was running the country as a dictator, Tinubu said: “I disagree with that.
He was elected on a platform of democracy; he has adhered to rule of law so far. What is dictatorship about what he has done? “He has helped to stimulate the economy in the various states and that is where the people are.
So what is dictatorship? And the institutional paralysis had occurred in the country. “It is very important for a steady man like the president to really help the nation recover from the pa-ralysis and that is what he is doing; so I don’t see what is dictatorial about that. If they don’t have anything to say, they rather be quiet.
They created what is wrong here today and we can’t sweep that under the carpet. There must be rule of law.” He also dismissed media reports that there was a crisis in the party over its Board of Trustees (BoT) chairmanship.
“Don’t listen to rumours; there is no struggle. Our party is not even looking at the direction of power struggle or anything of such,” he stated. According to him, the current support structure of the APC is to encourage Buhari to institutionalise his goals, principles and vision for a new Nigeria. “As you have heard from Chief Bisi Akande, we are here to help him institutionalise his goal, principle and vision for a new Nigeria,” he added.
Earlier, Akande had said he came to discuss with the president on the rot the PDP left behind. “I understand that President Buhari inherited piles of rot in the Villa and I say let me see him, talk to him and report to my party with a view to knowing how to encourage him to change the rot to good,” he stated. Asked what they discussed for over an hour with the president, he said: “It is the rot, piles of rot upon rot.”
